Theft in professional baseball used to be about stealing bases and signs. But not any more—not in the era of big data.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ former scouting chief pleaded guilty Friday in a Texas federal courtroom to five hacking counts (PDF) in connection to unlawfully accessing a highly confidential database of another Major League Baseball (MLB) team, the Houston Astros.
Court documents said Christopher Correa guessed the password to the Astros’ database called “Ground Control.” Court documents describe the data as including scouting reports, statistics and other information “to improve the team’s scouting, communication, and decision-making for every baseball-related decision.” (PDF) The record said that Correa, who faces years in prison when sentenced later this year, used a “variation” of the password that a departed Cardinals employee used before leaving to work for the Astros.
It simply took guesswork by Correa, not computer intrusion skills, to get the keys to the data that included how the Astros ranked every eligible player in the draft, in addition to Astros’ trade-discussion notes with other teams, according to court documents.
The departing Cardinals employee, described as “Victim A” in court records, “reused a similar (albeit obscure) password for his Astros’ e-mail and Ground Control accounts.” That departing employee was instructed by the Cardinals to give his computer and password to Correa when he left the Cardinals organization, the government said.
The Cardinals fired the 35-year-old Correa last summer when allegations of misconduct surfaced. The investigation began in 2014 after 10 months’ worth of Astros’ front office communications regarding trade talks and negotiations leaked online.
Correa, during a his plea hearing, told the judge Friday that his hacking between 2013-2014 was “stupid.” He remains free on $20,000 bond.
The Cardinals have had some recent success. The team won the World Series in 2011, and had 100 wins last season—the most in the MLB. Court records show that Correa accessed the Astros’ database during major events in baseball, such as in the morning of the 2013 amateur draft and before a trading deadline last year.
